NEW: Is Japan Nuclear Calamity a Radiation Threat in RI?

NEW: Is Japan Nuclear Calamity a Radiation Threat in RI?

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News travels fast from Japan these days.  But does radiation?

With the threat of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor spewing radioactivity into the atmosphere, is there an actual risk that this could find its way around the world to Rhode Island?  “It is very unlikely it would reach here in any dangerous amounts,” said John T. Merrill, professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography.

Not another Chernobyl

Merrill contrasted the situation in Japan, where some radioactivity has been released already, to that of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion 25 years ago.  “Because the (Fukushima) explosion was more modest (than Chernobyl) the radiation was not lofted high,” and thus subject to the more powerful west-to-east jet stream at higher levels of the atmosphere.  "Chernobyl was much farther out far sooner,” Merrill explained.

Not that Rhode Islanders weren’t also worried 25 years ago. That included in Narragansett, where according to professor Merrill, a scientist named Mike Doyle collected grass clippings, ran them through a blender, filtered the output and found the measurable presence of direct radioactive deposits from the air. Not dangerous, but here nonetheless.

Exposure levels on the West Coast from Fukushima are obviously higher than the Northeast, which at worst might be a minor addition to what’s already uncomfortable for us.  “I’m not afraid of radiation, or nuclear power.  But this kind of exposure poses no significant danger.”